Agency for Health and Prevention (Greenland)

The Agency for Health and Prevention in Greenland, promotes public health, prevents diseases and investigates, treats and cares for people with illnesses. A core value of the agency for health and prevention is to promote and strive for equal access to health care for all citizens, regardless of geography.

The structure and the way the agency for health and prevention provides health care for Greenlandic citizen, differentiates from Denmark and other countries in Europe in a number of ways. The differences are caused by geographic, climatic, historic and traditions. The health care system in Greenland provides health care services to a population of approximately 57.000 people, dispersed over a very large geographical area. The many necessary local institutions drives an unusual high spending on transportation and communications, as distances between patient and health specialist can be long, while infrastructure is expensive and fragile.

In the capital – Nuuk – the hospital comprises specialty in surgery, intensive care, internal medicine and psychiatry. Along the cost a number of smaller 4-10 beds hospitals are in primary charge and providing health care. Patients are often transferred to the hospital in Nuuk or abroad, when advanced treatment is needed.

The psychiatric service is organized and directed from Nuuk, where admittance in a 12 bed ward is possible, including some beds in a closed ward. Some forensic patients are transferred to a special ward in Denmark. In Nuuk a municipal based psychiatric service is established as well as half way houses, institutions for disabled autistic people, very disabled schizophrenic patients, and other kind of support can be provided when needed.

With a population of nearly 57000 inhabitants it is not possible to provide a service to everybody including a personal meeting with a specialist on short time notice.

Along the coast nurses or auxiliaries with some training in psychiatry is placed in the bigger cities, and they meet the patients, do a clinical evaluation and with the support either by a specialist I Nuuk, or the local physician prescribe the needed medication.

Telecommunication with Skype or Lync or other means of videoconferences, gives the opportunity to get in contact with the specialist, and gives the specialist the possibility to do a clinical evaluation, either a Present State Examination, or a specific quantitative evaluation depending on the diagnosis.

To secure a sufficient quality of attention in psychiatry, specialist are traveling along the coast to meet the patients previously examined on videoconference each half year.

MasterMind services

ccVC:

Agency of Health and Prevention aims to improve the offer for psychiatric patients and staff in psychiatry outside Nuuk through improving opportunities for interviews, assessments and monitoring of treatment and long term training through the use of telehealth in the communication between the psychiatric unit of Nuuk and coastal hospitals, health centers, nursing stations and other partners.

AHP team members:

Role in project

Responsible for the technical implementation of telemedicine systems used for the project as wells as administrative contact

Specific role in WPs:

Involved in most WP7 activities in Greenland, providing technical and administrative guidance to the clinicians.